1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method of reducing noise, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method of reducing noise capable of adaptively reducing noise by applying a flexible sigma filter having different sizes for each area in consideration of the brightness or direction of an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, due to the development of a digital device, a circumferential image may be easily photographed anytime, anywhere, using a digital camera, a cellular phone, or the like. These devices, such as a digital camera or a cellular phone, capable of photographing an image, include an image sensor for photographing the image therein.
In the case in which image data photographed using this image sensor includes noise, when displaying the photographed image data, an accurate image may not be output. Accordingly, currently, research into effectively reducing the noise of image data so as to output an accurate image is in progress.
Particularly, in the case of an image photographed at night, noise reduction is performed without considering brightness or direction of the image, such that an edge is damaged or the image becomes entirely blurred.